


The Fight is Not Over

by imadwarf97



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, And take care of each other, Bodhi and Cassian are sweet, Canon-Typical Violence, Don't copy to another site, Established Relationship, Fest, M/M, Mention of Childhood Memories, Perceived Temporary Character Death, Post-Endor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2019-10-03 02:41:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17275577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imadwarf97/pseuds/imadwarf97
Summary: The Imperial presence on the planet was still relatively strong, and they could see some stormtroopers wandering around, their white armour almost blending in with the falling snow.or: The Empire has just a few Imperial outposts left in the galaxy, one of these are Fest where Festian rebels are trying to throw them off the planet. Bodhi and Cassian join them.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my awesome betas!

The shuttle gave a little shudder; the bigger and older transporters tended to do that from time to time. They had been on this kriffing shuttle for hours, and he was not used to just sitting around on a shuttle for a long time without being the pilot himself. There wasn’t even much to look at, except for the dark durasteel walls, and he was tired of it. The other rebels on the ship were also headed for the Outer-Rim Territories. If he guessed right, and based on the number of hyperspace adjustments they had made, they were past the Mid-Rim. But he couldn’t be sure because he hadn’t seen the navacomputer.

 

He glanced around, studying the other rebels on the ship. Like him, they had few possessions with them, a duffel and a backpack at the most. The rebellion hadn’t exactly given people the opportunity to own a lot, and the things they valued most, they never had in their bags. Those could be too easily lost. He had one of his parents’ rings wrapped around his neck, a simple and silvery thing that he had clutched tightly so often in his years in the rebellion. He didn’t even remember which parent it had belonged to, but he was fairly certain it was his mother’s. The knife his father had given him was strapped to his leg, and the only holo he owned he had tucked into the breast pocket of his shirt, or sometimes his jacket.

 

They all looked tired, some half-asleep in awkward positions that were sure to make them ache later, and one had even taken the liberty to spread out on the floor to sleep. Bodhi had been able to sleep for some of the trip, and Kaytoo was powered down in a corner. Cassian envied them both. If he were sleeping at least he wouldn’t be staring at the wall. There weren’t many left on the shuttle, most of them having already left at planets in the Inner and Mid-Rim, at the planets they had on their route. The one that slept on the floor let out a deep snore, and his friend kicked him hard in the ribs. It stopped him mid-snore, and Bodhi giggled softly at that beside him.

 

Cassian’s hand was held loosely in Bodhi’s grip, both of his hands played, fidgeted really, with Cassian’s fingers. The war had mostly been won, it was just a matter of a few remaining Imperial outposts. Soldiers had swarmed to the Rebellion when it became clear that they were winning. Cassian was not a fan of them, and while he hadn’t directly avoided them, he hadn’t tended to engage in conversation with them if he could help it. They had come at a time when the tide had been in the favour of the Rebellion and not the Empire. He was of course grateful for the new soldiers, but he would always respect the ones who had been in the fight longer more.

 

Cassian looked down at Bodhi pressed against his side. Bodhi looked back up with huge, twinkling dark eyes, framed by thick lashes and with loose strands of hair falling in his face. Bodhi grinned at him, but he kept wringing Cassian’s hands.

 

He shifted in his seat and turned to face Bodhi more directly. His leg bumped into one of their bags that he had stuffed under the shuttle-seats, bags that were stuffed full, mostly because all their winter gear was shoved into them.

 

Bodhi leaned up and gave him a quick peck on the lips as he brought his hand up to his face and stroked his forehead. “You look a little angry?” Cassian shook his head and looked down at their hands, which if he was honest, were a lot more interesting to look at then the dark walls.

 

“I’m not.” He paused for a moment. “I’m just tired of the inside of this ship.” The soldier on the floor had started up again and his friend groaned loudly before he gave him a swift kick again. Cassian leaned the side of his head against the walls.

 

“I don’t think I have anything that can help you with that. Did you try sleeping?”

 

Cassian nodded. “It didn’t work.”

 

“Maybe you’ll be able to sleep when we arrive.” One of the other passengers pulled their hood over their head in a vain attempt to drown out the racket from the sleeping soldier. Cassian and Bodhi still had a while to go before they reached the planet. Cassian wrapped a hand around Bodhi and pulled him a little closer. It had taken a while for him to be comfortable with showing affection in public, but not because he hadn’t wanted to, he just wasn’t used to it. Kay had been his only friend if he was being honest with himself, and he was a droid, until Rogue One more or less stumbled upon each other. He hadn’t just gained new friends, he considered them his family. And he certainly hadn’t ever expected that Bodhi would love him back, would fall for someone that had been a soldier all his life.

 

After being stationed at the forest-planet Endor for some time, he was glad to move to Fest, a much colder planet. There, all they had been able to see was trees, and Ewoks. At least the Ewoks made him feel at home, and even like he  _ was _ home again. Even if he hadn’t been to his home planet since he was six. He just hoped Bodhi would feel at home there, because although both their planets had been cold, Jedha had been a desert planet while Fest was snowy. He just hoped that Bodhi would want to stay once they got there.

 

He kissed Bodhi on the forehead before he leaned down to rummage through his bag.

 

“Are you looking for something?” Bodhi asked just as Cassian closed his hand around what he had been searching for. He pulled it out and handed it to him. It was an unopened chocolate bar, and that was, or had been, a luxury in the Rebellion. As they had gained more ground against the Empire, more things that had been considered scarce and a luxury had started to arrive, like decent caf and chocolate.

 

“Where did you get this?”

 

“I nicked it.”

 

“You nicked it,” Bodhi stated in a deadpan voice. Cassian nodded.

 

“I took it from Shara Bey, she has a whole pile. Even though I’m pretty sure she was aware that I took it.” He paused, hesitated as he looked around at the few passengers still on board, before he looked back at Bodhi. The others paid them no attention. “Don’t you want it?”

 

“Y-Yes, of course. I just – I just can’t believe Bey let you steal chocolate from her stock.” Cassian shrugged a little as Bodhi opened the chocolate bar. It was dark, and he had taken that one specifically because Bodhi had said he liked them dark.

 

“I may have recruited Kes to help me. I don’t think she minds that much.” Bodhi just hummed as he broke off a piece of the bar. He offered one to Cassian, mostly to be polite, because he knew that he wasn’t that fond of chocolate. Then he let out a noise that was almost too sensual and loud, and Cassian had the urge to check again if anyone was paying attention to them.

 

“Weren’t they talking about settling on Yavin 4 together, after the Empire is completely gone?” There was in fact several rebels that had talked about settling down there. Maybe they had felt an attachment to that planet. He had always been on missions, almost back to back, so he hadn’t developed that attachment to the planets they had stayed on. When Bodhi arrived, it had been an attachment to him and not a planet. The only planet he could think of as home was Fest, even if he was sure that Jedha would have made a nice home, had the Empire not destroyed half the planet.

 

“Yeah. I could probably visit them, but I don’t think I could live there.”

 

“Me neither.” They settled once more into silence, and Cassian shifted so that he could draw Bodhi closer to him, as Bodhi ate another piece of chocolate before he shoved it down into his bag. Probably to save it. The man on the floor was still making a racket, and it seemed that his friend had given up on trying to get him to shut up. He had turned slightly away from him and seemed to have picked up a holopad. Bodhi leaned his head against his shoulder.

 

The one with his hood over his head seemed to have given up on sleep. He huffed and smacked his head against the back wall. Cassian followed his example and slumped further down in his seat. The co-pilot came down the stairs.

 

“We are coming out of hyperspace and we will land on Ketaris. Get ready those who are going to this planet.” The co-pilot climbed back up, presumably to help land the skip. The soldier on the holopad stood up and stretched, making his back pop so loudly that it could be heard across the silent shuttle. He looked like he considered kicking his friend again. He did kick him, but this time in his foot. The sleeping man just grunted before he rolled over and blearily opened his eyes.

 

“Anto! Get up, we have arrived!” When he heard that he scrambled to get to his feet, even if he still looked half asleep. The other one calmly put his holopad away and got himself ready to leave the ship. It wasn’t that surprising that they got off on Kataris, considering it was a big trading centre. Probably lots of opportunities there. It still took a few minutes for the ship to actually land.

 

When the shuttle ramp finally descended, Cassian could see that the planet was bustling with people, even as far from the city centre as the landingpads were. In the distance he could just make out the vast oceans. At least it wasn’t beaches. None of the Rogue One crew could stand beaches anymore, and they had both very quickly agreed that they would not settle on a planet with beaches. That was just shortly after they had gotten together. It had taken them longer to agree to settle on Fest, and sometimes Cassian didn’t quite understand why Bodhi had said yes to move there.

 

The three rebels walked off the ship as soon as they heard the dunk of the ramp touching the duracrete. Bodhi and Cassian watched as the three of them disappeared in the crowd, the two friends separating from the third rebel. If Cassian had heard right, he had family or a girlfriend on the planet, which was probably why he had chosen to go there.

 

The ramp started to ascend after the rebels were out of sight.

 

The next stop was Fest, but it would probably be a while before they got there. The ramp closed and locked with a click. Now it was just the two of them with a powered down Kay off in a corner. He looked weird, all his long limbs folded together. The shuttle gave slight shudder, as it wasn’t one of the newer ones. Those would be used for the more central systems and in the Alliance battles still going on against Imperial outposts. Bodhi tucked his head into the crook of Cassian’s neck, brushed his lips over it and closed his eyes. Cassian leaned his head against the cold durasteel walls and hoped that he would be able to sleep if the tried again, now that they were alone.

 

He must have nodded off, because he startled awake when he heard steps coming down the ladder. Bodhi seemed to still be asleep, one of his hands held tightly against his shirt. The co-pilot jumped down the last few steps and landed with a thud.

 

“Sir? We’ll be coming out of hyperspace soon, we thought we would give you a little more time so that you could be dressed by the time we landed.”

 

“Thank you.” He nodded at him before he climbed back up the ladder and Cassian sat up, bringing Bodhi with him.

 

“Bodhi? We’re almost here, we need to get dressed.” Bodhi opened his eyes and looked grumpily up at him. He looked cute like this, unlike Cassian who looked like he wanted to murder someone when he had a grumpy face, according to Jyn at least. That may be why it had taken Bodhi and Cassian to long to get together, because his default expression tended to look angry.

 

“Are we there?”

 

“Yeah, the co-pilot just said we would come out of hyperspace soon.” He extracted his arm from behind Bodhi and pulled him to his feet. Bodhi pulled out his bag from underneath their seats and started to get dressed. Cassian powered Kay up, before he followed suit. He was just pulling on his blue parka when Kay stopped beside them.

 

“I see we have arrived.”

 

“A few minutes, they gave us time to get dressed before we landed.” Bodhi had wrapped a scarf around his neck and was zipping up his jacket. Cassian had taken the holster with his blaster and fastened it around his thick winter pants. The sniper rifle parts were stuffed in his bag. No need to draw more attention than necessary.

 

“We probably shouldn’t linger in the spaceport,” Bodhi said as he swung the bag over his shoulder. His blaster was also strapped against his thigh.

 

“That would increase our chances of encountering Imperials,” Kay stated. Cassian flipped his hood over his head and reached out to do the same to Bodhi before he pulled on his gloves. Just then they felt the ship land and the ramp started descending. Both the pilot and the co-pilot came down the ladder from the cockpit.

 

“Good luck, Major and Commander.” The pilot nodded at them before his co-pilot continued, “We’ll see you on the Lifeday celebration on Yavin 4.” Cassian personally felt that it was a bit optimistic, but Bodhi just grinned at them and told them that they would see them then. As the ramp lowered, Cassian and Bodhi were struck by the cold Festian wind.

 

The spaceport they had landed on was full of life, despite the cold and the planet’s early morning. Bodhi held tightly to Cassian’s hand as they made their way through the crowds, Kaytoo trailing behind them. If there was one thing Cassian was willing to do any time and any place, it was holding hands with Bodhi. Even when he had been more tentative with public displays of affection, he always held his hand. Fest had a lot of cities, but beyond the bustling cities, there was an immense wilderness, with valleys and mountains.The mountains that Fest was so famous for could be seen in the distance.The wilderness was one of the reasons why the Imperials mostly stuck to the cities. 

 

The Imperial presence on the planet was still relatively strong, and they could see some stormtroopers wandering around, their white armour almost blending in with the falling snow. Bodhi knew that they were on the way to procure an airspeeder of some sort so that they could get out of there and meet Cassian’s contact in the Festian rebellion. This rebellion was seperate from the Rebel Alliance, probably because the last memory people had of the Republic was the militarisation and the turn to becoming an Empire. To join an intergalactic republic was not the Festian rebellion’s goal. They wanted to get rid of the Empire but remain an Independent system, like they had been before the Republic and the Empire had arrived. They wanted to be able to decide for themselves, not be invaded again by outsiders. To take back the power they had before.

 

The spaceport was a picture of colour and beautiful. Banners hung from the stalls and there was fabric sold in every colour. Even if most of the people had thick clothes on, they still had some colour visible. Cassian noticed that Bodhi looked around, trying to take it all in. It was a little overwhelming to see it, because Cassian could not remember the markets from when he was young, and for Bodhi they reminded him of the markets on NaJedha before the Empire had arrived. The market stalls in the port was opening the stalls, starting to yell about the great offers, and Bodhi was trying to recall if they needed any supplies or new things, asking Cassian if they had everything. Cassian probably needed new clothes if he knew him right. He was always getting things for Bodhi, but in the process, he sometimes forgot to get things for himself. Bodhi stopped in front of what looked like a stall selling fruits, and they had something that resembled an apple but with spikes. Cassian tugged slightly at his hand, but he came to stand beside him once he realised what Bodhi was looking at.

 

“It’s Tuna, it’s called a Prickly Pear in Basic,” Cassian whispered in his ear.

 

“Are they any good?”

 

“I think so, from what I can remember at least.” Bodhi nodded at that and made his way up to the stall. He held up four fingers and gestured to the fruit, relieved that it was loud enough in the spaceport that he could get away with it. He didn’t know if he had to speak Festian to him, and he was sure he didn’t know that much of the language, even if Cassian had taught him some. He handed over the credits and put the fruit in the bag as he walked back to where Cassian and Kay were waiting.

 

“Did you get what you wanted?”

 

“Yes, and I’ll even share with you,” he said as he grinned cheekily. Cassian whispered a thank you as he leaned in and kissed him on the mouth. He took his hand again as they continued to walk through the market, and by the looks of this straight through the other side of the space port. They were almost across when Cassian felt him let go of his hand and when he turned around to ask what was wrong, Bodhi had disappeared. While Kay looked relatively calm in the face of Bodhi’s disappearance, Cassian felt panic creeping in. They had seen stormtroopers earlier, and while Bodhi would have made some sort of noise to catch his attention had something happened to him, Cassian became worried. He started frantically looking around, but it was difficult to spot someone when panic was setting in. Just when he was ready to start yelling for him, Bodhi appeared at his side, shoving something into his bag. Cassian let out a sigh and grabbed his hand rather tightly.

 

“Don’t,” Cassian paused “– you had me worried when you disappeared like that.” He mumbled a sorry before he turned towards Kay. “Sorry, Kay.” He felt Bodhi wring one of his gloves slightly, so he gave his hand a light squeeze.

 

“I was not worried. I saw where you went.”

 

“Thank you for looking after me.”

 

“That is not what I did.” Neither of them believed Kay for a second, but they let it go and started walking again.

 

As they neared the end of the spaceport Cassian spotted speeders lined up, with a blue-skinned humanoid standing beside them, with his hood pulled as far over his face as it would go. He leaned against one of the speederbikes, one that looked a lot like the ones they had used on Endor. 

 

“That’s not him, but he is going to tell us where the rebel base is. That’s where we’ll meet my contact,” Cassian muttered quietly. Bodhi whispered that he didn’t think he looked that trustworthy, but he trusted Cassian and if he meant that they could trust him to lead them to the rebels, then he probably could. The salesman straightened up when he noticed them approaching. It may also have something to do with the 7-foot imperial droid shadowing them. He shook Cassian’s hand when they got close enough.

 

“Zhaf Rhane”, he introduced himself. Bodhi hadn’t let go of Cassian’s hand, so he gave a small awkward wave.

 

“Fulcrum.” The humanoid, Rhane, raised an eyebrow at that and give a little nod, to show that he recognised the name. He nodded back at Bodhi, before he clapped his hands together.

 

“And what can I help you with, Don Fulcrum?”

 

“We would like to buy a speeder.” He eyed the three of them for a second before he turned and sauntered towards a four seat, blue airspeeder and slapped it on the hood.

 

“You’ll want this one. Fast, doesn’t use much fuel, will get you over mountains real easy.” He nodded his head towards some of the mountains behind him in the distance.

 

“If that is the one you recommend.” It was probably that one that was going to get them into the rebel base without being shot on sight and both Bodhi and Cassian preferred to stay alive.

 

“We’ll take that one then.” Bodhi walked over to the airspeeder as Cassian negotiated a price with Rhane. It looked to be in good condition and it was a closed roof over it, which quite frankly was a must on an ice planet like Fest. He would probably check it over once they arrived at the base.

 

“It seems like an acceptable speeder,” Kay stated from behind him, causing Bodhi to jump slightly. He hadn’t noticed that he followed him.

 

“Yep, it doesn’t seem like there is anything wrong with it.” He glanced over to where Cassian stood with the salesman, it looked as if they were finishing up, because they shook hands before they both walked over to them. Cassian looked serious, but that was his normal serious face.

 

“Now, I would head over those mountains,” Rhane nodded towards a mountain chain in the east, “you’ve got a small passage that makes them easy to cross, another 7 clicks north east after those mountains, you’ll reach another mountain. Beautiful landscape, and perfect for making camp.” He had spoken in a low voice, and the noise of the spaceport, even in the outskirts made it difficult to hear. But Cassian had heard him well because he nodded at what he had said. They shook hands again before Rhane walked away. Cassian slung his bag off his shoulder and placed it in one of the back seats, Bodhi followed his example and Cassian came around the speeder to help him. It was sweet, if a little unnecessary. Kay had already climbed in the free backseat when Cassian placed Bodhi’s bag in the back with his.

 

Cassian gave him a small lingering kiss on the mouth and stroked his hand down his arm. He got into the pilot’s side and slid into his seat as Bodhi did the same on the other side. It would be good to get out of the spaceport, even if the time they had spent there was minimal. The constant feeling of having to look over their shoulders would probably drastically reduce as they got away from the bustling place.

 

Bodhi helped Cassian pull down the hatch and secure it shut. Hopefully it would start to get warm in the airspeeder as they started the engine. Even though they both had grown up on cold planets, it was good to come away from the cold from time to time. And Cassian preferred not the spend the entire journey to the rebel base in a cold speeder, a feeling he was sure Bodhi shared. The engine started with a quiet roar.

 

“You ready?” Cassian asked at as he glanced at Bodhi.

 

“I- Yep. Definitely. Let’s go.”

 

Cassian manoeuvred the speeder gently out of the spaceport. Even though they were at the edge of the market, there were still people and vessels they had to manoeuvre around to get away from there. Cassian looked behind them, just to make sure the Imperials weren’t paying attention to them. He didn’t want to be stopped. Bodhi followed his gaze. Two stormtroopers were pointing in their direction.

 

“Kriff.” Cassian reached for his blaster and took it out, placing it in his lap for easy access. He saw them getting closer, walking towards them. If they found them suspicious enough, they would be arrested, and the probability that someone would come and rescue them were slim. Even they both knew that and they didn’t know that much about statistics.

 

“Cassian,” Kay said, “I would recommend getting out of here.”

 

“Shut up, K.” It came out gruffer than he had intended, but he could tell that Bodhi was a little nervous by the way his eyes kept glancing around.

 

The way in front of them finally cleared enough for them to leave the spaceport, and even luckier, in a way that made it seem that they were not rushing. The stormtroopers were still relatively far away when they left. Cassian looked quickly back to make sure that they had let them leave. The troopers had turned in another direction, it didn’t seem like they were pointing at them. Cassian let out a sigh and Bodhi slumped down in his seat.

 

“That was close,” Kaytoo stated from the back, and Bodhi had to let out at laugh at that. He could even see Cassian’s lips twitch. Bodhi threw his hands up and grinned over at Cassian, who gave him an almost blinding smile in return. He placed the blaster back inside the holster, now that they had gotten away from the trooper and spaceport. Outside the white snowy landscape was just streaks, the snow that had been falling gently earlier seemed to fall much harder. It was certainly much nicer than Hoth, at least that’s what Cassian thought. The Festian snow and terrain, while in some ways resembling the barren Hoth, was better. The mountains were huge and stretched towards the atmosphere, a stark difference to many ice-planets.

 

\--------------

 

They had crossed the passage of the first mountain range and were well on their way towards the second mountain chain that Rhane had described, when they spotted the first native animals. Both Bodhi and Cassian stared at them. If he remembered right, he had seen animals like that in his childhood, but he couldn’t be sure, for he might have read it in a book and dreamed it up.

 

“Are those banthas?” Bodhi enquired as Cassian slowed down so they could all get a better look at the herd moving slowly over the snow-covered plains.

 

Cassian shook his head. “No, we call them bueyes de almizcle, but you would probably call them musks.” Slowly they got closer to the herd and Bodhi whispered they were smaller than the banthas. They had brown fur standing out against the snow. Getting even closer, Bodhi saw that the horn was hanging down against their cheeks, rather than standing up.

 

“They’re beautiful,” Bodhi whispered, and Cassian couldn’t help but agree.

 

“They do not seem to be threatened by us, by the looks of their herd formation. You can see calves on the outside of the pack,” Kay remarked.

 

“How do you know that?” Cassian asked.

 

“I looked it up.”

 

They passed the herd and sped up a safe distance away so not to startle them. It had almost stopped snowing, and they were getting close the base as the mountain was steadily getting closer. But they saw no buildings or what could be described as sentient. Cassian hoped he hadn’t misunderstood the directions. But the mountain looked like it had as shallow cave, and in the worst case scenario (with the exception of being shot or shot at), they could sleep in the speeder in the cave and plan the next step there. It was best to just go for the cave, because they could not see anything that could be described as a rebel base, even if it was well hidden.

 

They neared the foot of the mountain, but something seemed off. There was something wrong with that mountain.

 

“The cave,” Cassian exclaimed.

 

“What?”

 

“The cave is fake.” Bodhi stared hard at it, as if hoping it would reveal its secrets. “The base has to be behind the fake cave-wall.” It was difficult to tell, but it had probably been constructed with that in mind. Like their base on Hoth, it was underground and inside the mountain. The cave wall moved, pulling upward like a gate. It was an impressive construction and  could probably withstand a great deal of force. It would be difficult if not impossible to locate the base if you didn’t follow someone or know where the base was. 

 

Imperials might be able to pick up on it with scanners. Cassian didn’t know the kind of masking devices they had. They slowed down as they neared and entered the cave, and stopped inside the durasteel walls. The fake wall gave a low rumble as it descended again.

 

Cassian opened the hatch and armed Festian rebels swarmed toward them with their blasters pointed at them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you ANTchan for being by beta!

They stood by the airspeeder, and Cassian saw some of the rebels take a few steps back at the sight of Kay. He couldn’t blame them, rebels in the Alliance had also been weary of him and some of them still were. He did look like an imperial droid, even if he was reprogrammed.

He made his way over to Bodhi and placed himself slightly in front of him, even if he knew that it wouldn’t help if they started shooting at them. He felt him grab ahold of his parka, a twitch going through his hand and he didn’t know if it was nervousness or if he was afraid. But they hadn’t shot them yet and considering that they let them in in the first place, Cassian was carefully optimistic about it. Grabbing a hold of his blaster would only escalate the situation, but made sure that his right hand was free so he had the opportunity to reach for it if needed, even though they were terribly outnumbered, and surrounded. 

At far back of the hangar-cave, what looked like a commanding officer came out waved his hand in a clear signal for the soldiers to lower their weapons. 

He had a scar running down the side of his face, and if Cassian had to make a guess, it was probably from a battle with the imperials or acquired in captivity. He looked to be Draven’s age and Cassian could not decide if it made him feel better or more uneasy. He stopped a good 8 feet away from them and placed his hand calmly behind his back. But it was a forced calm, a front he put up for the benefit of the soldiers. All the years spent reading body language, mostly to be used against them later, sometimes benefitted Cassian.

“Who are you? You have one of Rhane’s speeders and he does not sell them to just anyone.” His eyes swept over them, pausing on Kay. “So, who are you?”

Cassian stepped closer to the man, forcing Bodhi to let go of his jacket. He heard him shifting on his feet.

“I’m Fulcrum.”

The hangar became deathly silent, and the soldiers glanced at each other seemingly not knowing how to react. The man looked taken by surprise and his hands slowly fell down to his sides.

“And how do we know you are who you say you are? Do you have any proof of your claims?” Cassian shoved his hand in his pocket, pulling out a small symbol, and held it up for the man to see. It had two jagged lines going downward with two squares on each side of the lines. It was the Fulcrum symbol, and it was a well-known symbol among the rebels, at least the intelligence agents and those who had contact and knowledge about the Fulcrum. Cassian stepped closer to him, holding it in his palm.

“This is mine, and because of that the symbol will only be shown when I hold it.” He placed the symbol in the hands of the general, and watched it disappear. There was a small intake of breath from the man before him, watching him give Cassian a shocked look. He handed it back and watched as it reappeared.

He held out a hand for Cassian to shake.

“We had heard you were coming to join us after you retired from the Alliance, but we weren’t expecting you so soon. I’m General Barak Koor.” Cassian nodded at him as he shook his hand, and he noticed that he looked a lot less like Draven than he had at first glance. Cassian looked around him, taking in the much more relaxed soldiers as some of them muttered between them. He wasn’t sure if they could hear everything being said between Cassian and the general, but they had probably realised that they were not under attack.

“If it’s not a lot to ask, I think we would like to know your real name?” Cassian glanced back at Bodhi and Kay. He wasn’t sure about how much he trusted them yet, but that might just be him being overly cautious.

“If you tell anyone of my identity, or otherwise put us in danger for telling you who I am, I’m going to give the Imperials every piece of information I have of your rebellion, and I have a lot. Do you understand me?” His accent became clearer, more crisp, something it had a tendency to do that when he was angry or threatening someone. The general swallowed thickly.

“Yes, I understand, and I’ll make sure everyone else understand too.” Cassian gave him a sharp nod and looked back at Bodhi just to see him shuffling his feet. Bodhi gave him a small smile. He didn’t know if it was a supportive smile or if he was anxious, but it still helped Cassian relax just a little bit. He had been able to do that almost since the first time they met.

“Major Cassian Andor.”

“And your friends?” He paused again.

“The droid, is K-2SO, a KX unit and Commander Bodhi Rook.” He didn’t know if he should give more information than that, but they would find out about their relationship sooner or later. “Bodhi and I - we’re together,” was what he settled on in the end as it seemed better that they just knew from the start.

The general looked at Bodhi and Kay, and Bodhi gave a little wave from where he was standing. Cassian smiled at the a gesture that was so typical Bodhi. Koor turned and addressed the soldiers still standing in the hangar, blasters in hand.

“You can go back to what you were doing. General assembly at 2100 tonight.”

He turned back to them.

“Get your things and I’ll show you to your room.”

Cassian walked back to the other two and ran his hand down Bodhi’s arm. He hoped he hadn’t made a mistake, revealing their identities. His only wish was to keep Bodhi safe and give him a home, ideally with him, and now he was afraid that he may have ruined it all. That he had put Bodhi in danger because he had blindly trusted the rebels. Maybe it was because they were Festian like him, but that didn’t mean that they deserved his trust. Bodhi smiled at him and gave his hand a squeeze.

“It does not look like they are going to shoot us, Cassian,” Kay stated.

“We can see that, Kay,” Cassian said sarcastically as he lifted Bodhi’s bag from the speeder. Bodhi covered his mouth with his hand to hide his laugh and Cassian couldn’t help but smile at that. He gave the bag to Bodhi and took his own and turned to follow Koor, his hand settled at Bodhi’s back.

They followed Koor through the winding corridors, that was sleekly carved stone and free of ice and snow, so unlike their base at Hoth. He saw Bodhi looking around and taking it all in, and the closest Cassian came to a comparison of the base was perhaps the Yavin 4. Cassian tried to memorise the way back to the hangar, just in case. He knew it was partly his watchfulness that made him do it, but he had been raised in an environment where he never could be too careful and that every detail he knew could play into his advantage. One of the lights blinked, threatening to give out and that at least was something familiar. The low steps of Kay behind them was also familiar and grounded Cassian to the present, keeping him from getting too lost in his thoughts. 

Bodhi was fiddling with the strap of his bag, but it didn’t look like he knew what he was doing, because he continued to look around.

They stopped by a grey durasteel door, almost impossible to tell apart from the wall. The only thing setting it apart was the number on the door. 056.

“I’m taking the liberty to assume that you’ll be sharing a room, which is why there is only one room for you,” the general said as he gestured towards the door and started pressing buttons on the scanner next to it. A good assumption then. “Just press your thumbs into the scanner and the room will be yours, and no-one but yourselves will be able to enter it.” Cassian glanced at Koor at that and he must have seen something in his looks, because he elaborated. “I have intelligence officers too, Major.” That explained his words. They followed his instruction and Koor explained where to find the cantina (end of the hall to the left) before he bid them good night. Cassian knew that they had been travelling for a while, but he didn’t think it had gotten that late. The low rumbling of his stomach told him something different. He walked in first, scanning the room for hostilities. It wasn’t that he thought they would kill them when they had already gotten so far, but better safe than sorry.

“I am going to stay with you tonight. I do not trust the rebels just yet, I could see the way they were looking at me.” He heard Kay say. Cassian nodded absentmindedly, he had already suspected as much. In the Alliance Kay had tended to roam and wander wherever he pleased. But that was after the other rebels had gotten used to his presence. Cassian thought the same had to happen here, they had to get used to him being here and not see him as a threat. And since they weren’t, Kay wasn’t comfortable roaming. Not that he would ever admit it out loud of course.

“The room is really big,” Bodhi said as he dumped his bag on the one bed, larger than any they had had earlier, even with the privileges they had gotten with their higher ranks.

He was right, the room was much bigger than they were used to. The standard things were there, a desk and a chair, a wardrobe, a bed, and an attached refresher. But there was so much more space, it wasn’t as cramped as they had been used to. It almost felt like there was too much space. At least they wouldn’t be stumbling over Kay if he decided to power down for the night. Bodhi started rummaging through his bag, as Cassian put his on the bed as well, looking for something to eat.

“I don’t feel like going to the mess right now.” 

Cassian glanced at the chrono on the desk and even though it was just early evening all he wanted to do was eat something and crawl into bed with Bodhi and get a proper night’s sleep. Even if they had spent most of the day in a speeder, the day and night spent in an old shuttle had made it feel like a week a least. And Cassian wasn’t exaggerating, he knew what a week in a shuttle felt like.

“Did you find anything?” Cassian asked as Bodhi popped his head up from where he had been digging through the druffel. His triumphant face said it all as he showed Cassian the handful of fruit he had bought at the market.

Cassian quickly dumped their bags on the floor and saw that Kay had powered down without him noticing. He probably didn’t need to do it, but he sometimes did to give them privacy when he was staying with them. It was a nice gesture. He didn’t look as weird as he had on the shuttle, because his limbs were not as folded as they had been. Bodhi dropped the fruit on their bed and Cassian pulled out the knife he had strapped to his leg, the one his father had given him. 

He slowly peeled the prickly pear, being careful of the spikes that was jutting out of it, and handed to Bodhi pieces as he cut it up. They ate in silence, handing each other pieces of fruit at Cassian cut them up.

They didn’t waste any time, both of them too tired from last few days to linger in their nightly routine. They settled into the bed, the blankets were thick and Cassian knew right away that Bodhi would not freeze there like he had on Hoth, especially when Cassian hadn’t been there to be an extra source of warmth for him. Bodhi slung his arm across Cassian’s stomach and entangled their feet, while Cassian wrapped both his arms around him and pulled him closer. His blaster was tucked under the mattress, something he had started to do when Bodhi began sleeping with him. Before he had met Bodhi, the blaster had been tucked under his pillow, but he had been afraid it would go off and cause Bodhi harm, and he was willing to sacrifice some of his personal comforts if it meant that Bodhi was safer.

Bodhi breathed heavier and it was just a matter of time before he fell asleep.

“I love you,” Cassian muttered into Bodhi’s ear and leaned down to place a kiss on his mouth. He closed his eyes and tried to make himself comfortable.

“I love you too,” he heard him whisper back and Cassian received another kiss.

___________________________________

It was still dark in the room when he woke up so he turned his head towards Bodhi, buried it in his hair and tried to go back to sleep. But he couldn’t fall asleep, no matter how long and hard he tried. He ran hand through Bodhi’s hair, playing with the ends. He remembered when the medics had cut off all his hair when they had arrived from Scarif, in an effort to treat his burns. He had looked so broken when he had woken up and noticed what they had done. Running his hand over his head and forgetting himself and reaching out to play with his hair. Cassian had convinced the quartermaster that he needed a new cap, even though he never wore one, and had given it to Bodhi after he had quietly told Cassian his head felt cold one day. 

Right then he looked perfectly content, with the blanket pulled almost up to his ears, cuddled up to Cassian and sleeping soundly. Cassian continued to stroke Bodhi’s hair, playing with the strands and somehow managed to get even closer to him. Bodhi shifted slightly.

“Go back to sleep, I can hear you thinking,” Bodhi muttered. Cassian smiled at that.

He almost didn’t dare to look at the chrono, because he knew that if Kay was still powered down it was too early to be awake. It was three in the morning. Cassian groaned quietly, turned over so he could fully embrace Bodhi and tried again to go to sleep. It took a while before he finally it finally happened.

________________________________ 

The artificial lights turned on slowly and were meant to simulate dawn. Not that Cassian cared, he didn’t feel rested at all.

“Cassian, I would advise you to get up if you wish to get any breakfast. Koor has already been at the door and requested both of you meet him at War Chamber as soon as you can.” Cassian almost fell out of bed as he tried to get up and Bodhi made an annoyed noise as his source of heat left him. Getting out of bed had never been a problem for Cassian, even when he was not entirely awake.

“What time is it?” he muttered as he made his way to the refresher, eyes still half closed and barely awake.

“Three minutes past seven.” Cassian hummed at that, but Bodhi made no move to get up.

“I hope you know where it is, because I have no idea,” Cassian said as he closed the refresher door. He would have to wake Bodhi up when he were done.

He managed to get Bodhi out of bed by pulling the blanket off him and almost dragging him out of it. Bodhi muttered about the cruelty of Cassian’s treatment of him all the way to the mess hall, that was thankfully almost deserted. He felt stressed about getting to Koor as fast as possible and almost swallowed his food whole. It had been a long time since he had eaten anything with so much flavour, with the exception of a home-cooked meal once in a while, the food in the Alliance had been bland and the caf was crap. The caf on the other hand was just the same as in the Alliance. Bodhi on the other hand took his time, probably as a revenge for the wake-up that morning. He was glad that Kay had followed them, so that they didn’t have to find him before they made their way to the war room.

He didn’t know what they were walking into as they followed Kay toward the war room. They didn’t know how they would be treated. He had worked for the respect he had in the Alliance, but it had been hard and exhausting, so he clung to the hope that this time it wouldn’t be so difficult. They met several soldiers on their way to the war room, all of them nodding at them as they as they walked past. Cassian had a feeling that the meeting Koor had mentioned yesterday had something to do with it, even if they were still extremely weary of Kay, dodging him in the hallway. It would probably help if he didn’t look like every other Imperial enforcer droid, so Cassian seriously considered painting him. Bodhi had once joked that he would look good with a pink colour to which Kay had clearly stated that he did not approve of that colour. However painting him would make him useless for undercover work. 

In the war room, it looked like a great deal of the higher officers were present. Cassian saw that Bodhi had his goggles in his hands, the ones that had been in his bag the whole way here. He didn’t know if it was because Bodhi was afraid to lose them, or if he felt like he didn’t need them on the way to Fest. He hadn’t asked.

All their eyes fell on them. In the Alliance they had been able to blend into the background until they had something to say. It seemed like that was not going to be the case here. Koor was standing by the a map of Fest, leaned forward on his hands and studying it. 

“Major Andor and Commander Rook, welcome,” he said as he straightened up and gestured for them to come forward, towards the map. “We were hoping you had some additional information you could share with us,” he continued as he indicated around the room. Cassian let his gaze seep across the room and from what he could tell, they were waiting in anticipation. 

“We’re going to need to know what you already know first.” Any and all information would probably be helpful, but it would be a waste of everyone’s time if they just repeated what they already knew. Bodhi gave him a tentative smile and when he turned back to the officers in the room he straightened his shoulders. He looked just like when he had walked into the Alliance war room to be questioned about the Death Star plans. Determined, but with no idea how it was going to go.   
The general gestured to the map of the planet. “The red marks are everywhere we know that the Imperials have strongholds, but the blue ones show a much weaker presence of the Imperials.” He continued to relay the information they had of the different bases, their security measures at every base and the support they had among the people living on the planet. Bodhi was paying rapt attention to the information that was being conveyed, and Cassian couldn’t help but stare at his concentrated and determined expression. 

The first thing that Cassian explained was that he had taken his whole intelligence network with him when they had left the Alliance, because when the informants first trusted someone they tended to be loyal toward those they conveyed information to. 

Something he had noticed when they were in the hangar, was that he had been filled with different starfighters, which all looked to be useable. That was something that would come in handy. 

“How many Ground Assault Vehicles do you have?” He asked, a plan already forming in his mind. It wasn’t his decision to make, if they would follow the plan he suggested, but it was worth a shot. At least they would know of a new imperial facility. 

“Just three juggernauts, Major. They are difficult to get a hold of.” Cassian gave a slight nod at that. 

“Here,” Cassian said as he gestured on the map in front of him, “there is a weapons research facility, that mainly built walkers and ground assault weapons, like juggernauts.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Bodhi catching on, probably remembering the times when they had done something similar like Cassian was planning. “It would be ideal to take out such facilities, because if would hinder, if not cripple their weapons production and supply.” One of the lower ranking officials was writing what he said down.

The Festian officers glanced at each other. 

“And do you have a suggestion for how to do it?” He didn’t see who had asked, but they all seemed to be waiting for him to suggest a plan. 

“Do you have any Imperial officer uniforms, and some stormtrooper uniforms?”

This time it was General Koor that asked, “what do you need those for?”

“We are going to infiltrate the base, steal vehicles and blow it up. I have some information that a weapons inspector is arriving later today, because while the Empire is on the retreat in the Galaxy they still like to keep up internal appearances. But he won’t be arriving because the Rebel Alliance captured him a few days ago.”

“We have done it before,” Bodhi explained, “what we do, we dress up - usually intelligence officers - in Imperial uniforms and they infiltrate the base in question. And they steal as many vehicles was they are able to, while they get arial support during their escape. We then bomb the base when everyone has made it out.” 

“The officers going in should take Kay with them. Sentients have a tendency to stay away from enforcers droids even in the Empire.” The Festian officers looked at each other and glanced wearly at Kay looming in the background. 

“How many men do we need?” 

“No more than seven, one as an officer and 6 troopers. Too many would be suspicious. But in the end it depends on how many uniforms you have.” Koor gave a nod, a few of the others were joining.

“We have enough to make that happen.”

The rest of the time went to asserting the details of the operation, deciding who should be apart of the infiltration and arial forces. The Festian officers had made it clear that Bodhi and Cassian were to lead the different aspects of the mission. They had given up trying to convince them that their own soldiers should lead it. But the intelligence agents in the room seemed pleased with the decision, some muttering under their breath about actually doing something, instead of mainly gathering information and recruiting people into their networks and into the rebellion. 

Cassian looked at the intelligence agents that had gathered around him in the hangar after the War Room meeting. One of them looked young, and he wanted badly to ask him why he had joined the rebellion. If he was like him. Or if he just had wanted to fight against those occupying his planet. But everyone else looked like they were older than him. They probably remembered what Fest had been like before. Before the Empire and the Republic. 

One of them was purple skinned, but the bored expression on her face reminded him of Jyn in the numerous meetings she had been in. And the light eyes of another seemed distinctly like Chirrut. He tried to not think about that, because he was going into an Imperial Weapon Facility and he couldn’t be distracted by faces of people that weren’t even here. 

The pilots had surrounded Bodhi the minute they had heard about their missions and Cassian could barely see the top of his head. Their sharp green flight-suits stood out against the dark stonewalls in the hanger. He could’t tell what Bodhi was saying to them, but the seemed to hang on to every word. 

Cassian relied the information to them and described what to expect when they walked into the Imperial base. He didn’t know what kind experience they had at infiltrating Imperial-bases so he hoped he wasn’t giving them information that they already knew, making them feel like rookies.

Both their groups dispersed, one to change into their uniforms and the other to both change and prep their ships. He hoped the mission went well, because both he and Bodhi might lose valuable trust if it failed, and it was because of faulty info or because something they could have prevented, went wrong. 

He followed the intelligence agents to a wardrobe, Kay following them and trying unsuccessfully to blend in, and received his uniform, which turned out to be high ranking. Cassian was used to putting on these uniforms, even if he hated every second he spent in them. He would have preferred to burn them all, but unfortunately they were useful. He had gotten his jacket on, but not it zipped up. Cassian was helping the young one, who he had already taken a liking to because of the sassy comments he made as he was putting on the uniform, not that he would every admit that out loud. Bodhi was already halfway into his flight-uniform, with it boundled around his waist when made his way over to him. 

He ran his hands over Cassian’s shoulders, smoothing out the jacket and began to close it. This had become something of a routine for them whenever Cassian had to leave for undercover missions or infiltrations. Bodhi would always help him, and it was a way for them to spend time together before they would be separated by missions. Bodhi’s forehead creased in concentration and Cassian couldn’t help but think he looked very cute when he did it. Cassian let him finish before he framed Bodhi’s face in his hands, not caring if any of the pilots or agents were watching them in curiosity, something he clearly saw them doing.

He leaned in and gave him a long kiss, letting his tongue run lightly over Bodhi’s bottom lip. He felt him let out a sigh as Cassian pulled away and leaned his forehead against Cassian. 

“Be careful, okay?”

“I will.You be careful too.” A nod.

“I love you.” 

“I love you, too.”

They both pulled completely away and Cassian saw a few of the others turn their heads really fast, probably in the hope that they wouldn’t catch them staring. Bodhi sniggered quietly as he walked over the the other pilots.

All of the intelligence agents had gotten their uniforms on, but he noticed that he had to show a few of them how to hold their blasters. He showed them how to hold them and they formed a plan for how they would walk when they got there. Two beside each other, behind Cassian and Kay. Hopefully that way if they were stopped they would ask Cassian the question and not someone that had just been told of the mission. He knew they could handle themselves, or they wouldn’t have been picked for the infiltration, but Cassian prefered that it was on him if the mission went wrong. 

They all made their way to the hangar to get ready to leave and Cassian saw Bodhi climb into a blue X-wing. He straightened his shoulders and schooled his face before he placed the cap on his head and clasped his hands behind his back.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to my beta!

The wind was blowing almost horizontally as they stood outside the Imperial Weapons Facility waiting to be let in. It seemed that the Facility had not heard that the Inspector had been taken by the Alliance, which had been essential to the mission. If they had heard that, they would probably been more suspicious than they were. The base stood out against the snow-covered terrain with its durasteel colour and bulking exterior. It didn’t look like it belonged on Fest, but then again nothing the Imperials had built looked like it belonged on any planet because it was always so different from what the native inhabitants had built. Cassian remembered how the Imperial architecture had stood out from the native Jedhan structures like a sore thumb, or like a rainstorm would considering the planet’s environment. Just like on Jedha, Imperial Facilities were obvious in the Festian landscape. 

It was a large building, not that Cassian had expected anything different form the a weapons facility, but it loomed over them and made it seem much more intimidating than it was. It looked like the Empire had just put several large durasteel boxes together and dropped them on a mountainside. It had to have something built into it, because the falling snow fall on the Facility melted. Perhaps some sort of heated exterior plates. He had infiltrated bases before, more times than he bothered to count, and on several occasions he had been prepared to die and even expected it. It was different now, because he had just started to imagine that he would survive this was and experience peacetime. He had Bodhi to get back to, and that was something that had changed since Jedha. He had someone he looked forward to seeing again and he had people that had come with him that trusted him to get them safely back. 

He mentally shook his head and refocused on the mission. He couldn’t afford to be distracted now, even if the thought of Bodhi was much more pleasant than the things that faced him now. Kay was looming beside him while the intelligence agents were standing at attention behind him. He didn’t turn around but he heard some of them shifting very gently on their feet, so softly that it was almost impossible to hear, or adjusting their grip on their blasters. Cassian really wanted to shift on his feet at that moment, but he refrained. He was getting impatient with the Imperials confirming his identity, and neither he nor the officer he was portraying was going to stand for it much longer. It didn’t help that the stiff wind almost blew his hat off, or that the wind somehow got in between his clothes making him nearly frozen. 

He was just about to demand to be let in when the door in front of them slowly opened with a loud shrieking sound. They walked through the door into a long corridor, whose sterile surface would have reminded Cassian about the medbay had it not been for the black colour. The fact that they were in an Imperial base also made it difficult to really feel safe like a rebel base did. 

A man stood at attention inside, and by the looks of his rank plaque he was a lieutenant. A low ranking officer then, Cassian assessed. He gave a crisp salute as they walked past him and Cassian could see out of the corner of his eye that he faltered, almost unsure what to do. He had obviously been given orders regarding them by his superior officers. 

“Sir?” He moved after them with hurried footsteps far louder than all of the rebels. “Sir?” 

Cassian stopped and turned to the soldier, whose gaze was flitting across the room, and gave him a hard stare. “Yes, lieutenant?” 

“I had orders to show you around the base, Sir.” 

“That won’t be necessary. I am quite familiar with the base.” And he was, they had studied the layout of the base on the way there, and were familiarized with the path to the hangars. The best way to make a story believable, after all, was to stick as close to the truth as possible, and the more that was the truth or almost the truth made the lie that much easier.

The soldier looked unsure of what to do or say and he kept glancing up at Kay towering over him.

“You services are not needed. Dismissed, Lieutenant,” Cassian continued. 

He gave Cassian a salute and left, but not before he gave Kay one last nervous look. Cassian couldn’t help but smirk a little at that, having an intimidating Imperial Enforcer droid with you had it’s benefits: everyone tended to ask less questions or question orders. 

Regarding the unimaginative architecture of the Imperials, a lot of bases bore similar resemblances internally even if the layout of the different bases might vary greatly. The dark wall and the sterile look continued as they moved through the corridors and the few soldiers that they met paid them little attention even if some of them looked at them twice. Even though he knew that the footsteps behind him were friendly, that they were rebels like him, he couldn’t help the uneasy feeling that someone was on to them and that he might get caught any minute. 

He placed his hands behind his back and schooled his face as neutrally angry as he could, and tried to seem much like the officers that he had encountered in his life. He remembered one time that Tonc had said that his Imperial face looked a lot like his normal face. At the time he hadn’t particularly liked the remark, or the observation for that matter, but sometimes it made it easier to look like an angry Imperial if he was thinking about the smug look on Tonc’s face as he’d said it. And if his normal face looked like the facial version of kriff off (also a lovely comment from Tonc), it wouldn’t be as hard to put his Imperial face on.

It must have worked because one of the workers took one look at him, bowed his head and avoided eye-contact, and scrambled past him, possibly afraid that he was going to invoke the Officer’s bad mood. Tonc’s comments had their uses from time to time, even if his little games with other intelligence agents in the alliance about getting him to smile at inopportune moments, was less useful.

A big door was just to their right and, based on the blueprints, was where the Imperial Juggernaut tanks would be. Two stormtroopers were standing by the door, which probably had something to do with the Imperials shrinking hold on the galaxy and the fear that the weapons would get stolen. It was a valid fear considering they were about to steal their juggernauts. Besides, Cassian had for most of his life applied the rule better safe than sorry, and it seemed like the Imperials were starting to live by that same motto. He tried to signal behind his back for the other rebels to stop, and someone must have caught the meaning because they stopped in front of the door. One of the times Tonc was extremely good to know was when he had extracted passcodes from Imperial Weapons Inspectors. Cassian entered in the codes beside the door and it slid open. They saw the juggernauts lined up against the two longest walls. Ready for shipping. Or stealing.

They walked in. 

Cassian turned to the door to close it once he was inside the hangar. He hadn’t had a plan if they tried to stop him, but perhaps something about needing to do it alone in case anyone stationed at the base tried to influence the inspection would suffice. He had to take the chance that they would not react to it and he let out a small breath when one just glanced back but made no further moves to stop him. He pressed the lock-button. 

“Don’t take off your helmets, but split of into pairs of two and choose a juggernaut. The one you pick is the one you should steal.” 

One of the older agents - if Cassian remembered correctly - gave him a sharp nod. “It’s probably not a good idea for us to go solo, it’s easier to understand and control it if we are in groups of two.” 

He was glad he had the support of another agent, and it probably made it easier to take the orders Cassian gave. It wasn’t easy to refrain from questioning orders from a officer that had just arrived and that they had not known previously. 

They split up into groups, Cassian and Kay going into all the juggernauts in case there was security holos or someone was watching. He made sure that he spent a few minutes in each of the juggernauts so that it seemed like he was actually inspecting them. They needed to make it seem real for as long as possible to give the other agents time to learn the controls and familiarize themself with the juggernauts. They were big tanks and combined with their ten wheels made them capable of transporting many soldiers over rough terrain, something that made them ideal for Fest. The gray machines were lethal because of the top-mounted laser cannon. Cassian had seen them in action a few times. It would be very handy to have if they could steal it, because that cannon could blast through a lot of structures. 

Cassian came to the first tank that the intelligence agents had chosen and made his way to the cockpit. He could probably be quicker here, make it seem like they had already done the inspection. 

“You good? Have you figured out how everything works?” 

“Yes, Sir,” they said as they turned back to look at him and gave him a nod. 

“Good. As soon as that hangar-door opens, I want you to get out of here. Good luck.” He made his way down the ramp, Kay following him. He muttered quietly to Kay that he had to find a juggernaut for them, taking care to tilt his head a little downward in the hopes that it would seem like he was looking where he was going as he made his way down the ramp. 

In the two other tanks he repeated the process, making sure that they knew how to handle the juggernaut and telling them to get the kriff out of here the moment the hangar-doors opened, because they could be sure that they would be shot at. He was lucky that they all had understood how to steer it, because Cassian certainly would have been no help, seeing as he had never driven one of them before. He was quite sure that Kay had figured it out by now, though. 

Cassian took out his comlink. 

“Just a few minutes, then we are moving out of the hangar. Four tanks,” he said into the com, looking for the level or the button that would open the hangar-door. It was mounted on the wall farthest from the tank Kay had chosen and uncomfortably close to the facility-door.

Perhaps it was the comlink, or the intense stare he gave the level, or perhaps something entirely different that had busted them, but the banging on the door that lead into the facility was like snow down the back of his neck. It was certainly a cold awakening. He forewent getting into Kay’s tank; he just had to trust that he had everything under control. And Cassian hoped to the Stars that he did, because he would not like to be trapped in this hangar when the Imperials broke down that door. It would be a deathtrap, and by the sound of it, they didn’t have much more time before they got in.

Cassian broke into a dead sprint towards the level that opened the wide hangar-doors. Snow and cold was blowing into the hangar and three of the four tanks, the ones with the Festian rebels, were already moving towards the door. The facility-door broke down as Cassian was running back towards Kay’s tank and an alarm started blaring. He looked behind him to see that stormtroopers were already pouring into the hangar, far more than he had expected this soon. They must have realised that something was going on sooner or they there really fast to react when something happened. If he wasn’t so busy fearing for his life, he would have been impressed by how quickly they had responded. Several blaster shots came uncomfortably close to hitting him. He could feel the heat of them as they when past, one so close he even saw the deadly red light as it went by his ear. His adrenaline was already pumping fast, but the tank seemed so far away. If Kay didn’t start it and go for the door they were never going to make it out. 

“Kay! Close the ramp and go!” he shouted.

He was not far from the tank, but even if the ramp was closed he could climb up on a ledge over one of the wheels and stand there until they were at a safe enough distance for him to get in. That was probably his best option, as the kriffing ramp was closing far too fast for him to make it through. He chanced a glance behind him as the second of the tanks made it out of the hangar, and then he regretted it. There were just more and more troopers coming by the minute. That alarm really did what it was meant to do.

Kay’s tank had slowly started moving just as Cassian reached it and managed to climb on. He plastered his body as close to the juggernaut as he could, while he attempted to reach the blaster at his side. He knew it was going to get really cold as soon as they got through that door. But he would prefer being cold over being dead or captured by the Imperials. The laser cannon on top of the juggernaut slowly turned towards the troopers that were in the hangar and coming through the door. It had been a while since Cassian had seen one in action, and a twisted part of him wanted to see what it could do to them. But Kay didn’t aim at the troopers, the kriffing idiot. How was he going to kill Imperials if he didn’t aim at them? 

The juggernaut next to them exploded and sent shrapnel and durasteel everywhere, hitting several of the troopers, and the flames swallowed the ones that were closest. Some of the fuel tanks nearby also went up in flames. Maybe Kay wasn’t such an idiot after all. 

By the time they were at the hangar-door, Cassian had taken out several of the troopers himself.

The cold was like a slap in the face when they finally got through the hangar-doors, but the relief of seeing the outside of the base and the X-wings in the distance overshadowed the freezing feeling that was creeping through his clothes. Imperials really did not have uniforms suited for cold climate. 

Unfortunately the explosion had not stopped all of the troopers, even if it had bought them more time to get away. That became glaringly obvious as several of them came out after the tanks, firing at them. The freighters rapidly growing shadows on the sky and the juggernauts steady pace away from the base made it almost possible for Cassian to feel a little bit more at ease. The blaster-bolts kept hitting the shell of the tank, some even coming close to hitting his hands. The first bomb and blaster-bolts from the X-wings landing just outside the hangar-door, was like it had been the will of the Force, if Cassian believed in that. Perhaps Chirrut had rubbed off on him more than he would like to admit. But if that really was the will of the Force he made sure to thank it. 

He had thanked it too soon. 

The blaster came towards him in almost slow-motion and there was little Cassian could do to stop it. He knew then that it would hit him. But knowing did nothing to relieve the pain when it hit his thigh, going straight through. He bit his lip so hard he was sure he drew blood. The base was too far away that he didn’t know if it was luck or a sniper. It was a weird thought to have as his foot gave out under him and he fell backwards off the tank, into the loose snow, almost covering him completely. Even if it was soft, the pain was excruciating as he hit the ground, and he had to fight to keep himself from screaming, because that would certainly have made everything worse. Snow got into his uniform and made it colder than it already was. 

He managed to pull himself up just to see the entire weapons facility go up in flames and the freighters starting to head back to the rebel base, and the juggernauts moving away. 

He didn’t dare brush the snow off himself, because he needed the little camouflage it provided. He also had no way of knowing if anyone that survived the bombing would come after them. Cassian turned so he was standing on all fours, crounched as low as he could to blend in, his fingers already numb as he brushed away snow that was around his wound. It was bad. Blood was running down his thigh. He needed to tie it up but his shaking and stiff fingers made in difficult to rip of a piece of fabric from the undershirt he had untucked from his pants. When he finally managed to get a long enough piece he bit down hard, but the pain still made it difficult to keep quiet and he made a small whimper as he tightened the fabric. The adrenaline had made his thigh almost numb, but tying it up still hurt a lot. His hands were shaking with the pain of it as he hastily tucked the shirt back into his pants. Leaving a gap between his pants and shirt was never a good idea, it was something he had learned early when he lived on Fest.

He needed to work with the adrenaline he had because it was going to be tougher to move once it ran out, not to mention the cold would be extremely dangerous. He staggered to his feet and managed to stay upright in spite of his shaking leg. The howling wind and the thick downfall of snow would hopefully give him the cover he needed to get far enough away from the Imperial Weapons Facility. He kept his balance the first few steps so he shoved his hands under his armpits in an attempt to keeping the worst of the frostbite away and shielding them from the elements. 

To keep moving was essential. He knew that if he didn’t keep moving he wouldn’t make it anywhere and certainly not back to the rebel base. Cassian concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, because every step was progress and every step was keeping him alive. He knew that he was going in somewhat the right direction, because he followed the rapidly disappearing trails of the juggernauts. 

He had walked for a while even if he had no idea how long, but he was still shaking from the cold and that at least was a good sign. Increasingly he found himself thinking that he should just stop, because he was so kriffing cold and if he just sat down maybe someone would find him. 

“Don’t be a pussy, Andor,” he found himself saying out loud. He didn’t know if that was good, that he was talking to himself, but it was better not to wonder about that and instead use it to psych himself up. 

“You have been through worse. Just keep walking.” His teeth were chattering so much that the words were barely audible, but he was saying them to himself so it didn’t matter how loud he was. Besides, he didn’t think Bodhi would like it if he just sat down and gave up. And he really wanted his future with Bodhi, the one he had dreamt up in his head but had never dared to voice out loud, afraid that if he said something he would jinx it and everything would fall down around him. He didn’t dare close his eyes incase he stopped, but he could almost picture it in front of him. 

If Tonc, or Jyn for that matter, knew what he was thinking of he would be teased and called a sap. Chirrut would probably come with some nice words about how they both deserved a happy future together, something Baze would probably agree with since he knew that they were good for each other. At least that’s what he had said when Cassian had first been called out for his crush on Bodhi by Baze.

But the image that he had conjured up in front of him of their future helped him fight against the urge to stop, even as he was starting to get numb in his legs from the cold, on top of his injury that made it painful to put weight on it, the adrenaline having run out long ago. Not feeling his legs was not good at all. He had read something about that somewhere, but couldn’t remember the details. His whole situation probably wasn’t the best. And to be quite honest, he was pretty sure he was developing hypothermia, at least that was what his slight confusion and numbness was pointing towards. It wasn’t like him to go around picturing his future with Bodhi on missions, even when he missed him. 

He could see a mountain in the distance, and that was much better to focus on than the hypothetical future. It was something concrete, something he could physically reach. But he hoped to the stars that that was the correct mountain, the rebel base. If it wasn’t he was kriffed because of the lack of adrenaline and energy. He would never make it if that wasn’t the base, because no sane sentient would ever brave the current weather either to look for him or be out at all. That mountain was his last hope. The shaking was stopping and that was not ideal. He needed to shake. 

He went back to concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other like he had done when he had started walking. But it was difficult when his feet were so numb, even if the rhythmic flare of pain with every step was somehow making it easier to focus. And that the mountain was slowly getting closer. It was difficult to think, and he didn’t know what to do if it was the rebels and they didn’t recognize him. He couldn’t think of anything to say to them or how to convince them of who he was. They were probably good enough to see who he was, but Cassian had always been pessimistic, and he couldn’t force his thought to be more positive when he could barely think at all. His confusion and inability to think clearly was really setting in. 

The ground started tilting upwards, but it almost didn’t register with Cassian. He collapsed in the snow.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to ANTchan betaing and helping me with Kay's characterisation

He popped open the hatch of the X-wing, hoisted himself out of the cockpit and over the edge of the freighter, and placed his helmet in the seat before he walked down the ladder. It was a move he had learned from Luke and Wedge. The mission couldn’t have gone better. The Intelligence agents weren’t back yet, so Bodhi didn’t know how it had gone for them, but there had been four juggernauts leaving the Facility, just like Cassian had reported over the comm. So from the air everything seemed to have gone according to plan.

He got slaps on his back for a mission well done and returned the praise to the other pilots, because the mission had gone well. And besides, he liked giving praise where it was earned, and everyone on the mission had earned it. 

The hangar was bustling with activity, people running around taking care of the freighters that had gotten back, all lined up in their places again. 

He glanced towards the hangar-door even if he knew that it would probably be a while before the juggernauts reached base. They were moving slower than the X-wings after all. He had no reason to worry, as far as he knew everything was fine and they would arrive later, so he went to give the report together with the other officers that had joined the squad. One of the older pilots slung his arm over Bodhi’s shoulders as they headed to the War-Room, gesturing with his other hand as he chattered excitedly about the mission and described everything in a heavily accented Basic. Bodhi liked him already. His excitement was contagious and it reminded him of the atmosphere that was in the Alliance every time everyone got home safely. Somewhere in his retelling, Bodhi caught his name. Janos Solman.

He knew that Cassian was concerned if he was going to be happy here, even if he had never said so outright. But he was making friends much faster here than he had after he had joined the Alliance. That may have been because he had tended to stick close to Rogue One, at least until Luke and Wedge dragged him into a conversation when he had been tinkering with the X-wing he had just been assigned. After that they had been great friends and he had made fast friends with the other pilots. 

He grinned at the pilot’s antics. Jumping on each others backs even as they entered the War Room, and it was something he hadn’t seen before. It was refreshing that they didn’t rein in their excitement in front of their superior officer. The officers were all grinning happily so it didn’t seem like they minded the pilot’s antics.

“Muy bien,” the Admiral said and when he looked at Bodhi he added, “well done.” Bodhi remembered him, he had been present when Cassian and Bodhi had been there that morning. They had probably heard the transmissions that had been going between the pilots, at least that was what had happened when there had been big missions in the Alliance. The pilots still delivered the report, the officers probably wanted to know everything, not just the communications between the pilots. The fact that the report was in Basic was most likely for his benefit, more than anything else. They were all listening rapidly, a few of them taking down everything that was said. Bodhi added things if he felt it was necessary, but mostly he let them handle it.They were just as animated in their report as they had been on their way from the hangar. And Bodhi loved it. They would all have to write a written report later, because they tended to like having information written down. 

Once they were done with the debriefing Janos clapped him on his shoulder and loudly announced, “Caf is on me!” 

“Caf is free!” came the reply of one of the younger pilots that had joined them in the War Room. Janos just gave a shrug and grinned as they walked out. But Bodhi paused and hung back from the others for a moment and turned to the Officers in the room and hesitated, and fiddled with the straps of this flight-suit for a moment.

“Em, could you let me know when the juggernauts get here?” he asked. 

“Yes, of course. Just take this comm and keep it on you.” The Admiral picked up one of the comes on a table nearby and threw it to Bodhi.

“Thank you,” he said and smiled at them, and put the comm in his pocket before he went after the others. Even if it was just a short mission, he still looked forward to seeing Cassian again. And Kay. He knew that he would be happy that he had already started to get to know the other pilots, because of his badly hidden desire for him to be happy at Fest. Bodhi knew that if he didn’t like it here, Cassian would follow him wherever he went. But he was familiar with the feeling of wanting people he cared about to like his planet, he was after all still like that about Jedha. Had the Holy City not been destroyed and they had settled there instead, he would probably be just as eager for Cassian to be happy and like it there. 

He caught up with them in the hallways leading to the cafeteria. He looked forward to getting a cup of caf, even if it was as bad as the one in the Alliance. 

When they got to the cafeteria he was pushed down in a chair by one of the larger tables, even though he hadn’t had the opportunity to fetch himself a cup. He was confused about it for a minute, until he caught sight of Janos coming towards them carrying two large caf-pots and the young pilot that had made the exclamation about caf being free, distributing cups. She shook Bodhi’s hand when she gave him his cup, and introduced herself as Darien Wendin, before sat down beside him. With the chair the wrong way. He felt an exasperated smile grow. 

Janos plopped down across from him, and poured all three of them caf. The caf was still as bad as it had been in the morning and the Alliance, but as long as it had caffeine in it, he usually drank it. Cassian claimed he sometimes drank it by the bucket, which was a complete lie, even if he tended to drink more is he was working on his X-wing.

“So you are the boyfriend of Cassian Andor, the Fulcrum?” Bodhi tried to nod at the same time as he was taking a sip. Mentally he prepared himself for questions concerning about him and his codename. “He teach you any Festian yet?” That hadn’t quite been the question he thought they would ask first.

“Yes, but it’s going slow, because we don’t always have the opportunity to practise.” Darien and Janos both nodded at that. 

“We’ll help you, if you want,” Darien said. 

She almost as thick accent as Janos, and Bodhi found it kind of comforting, because Cassian had the exact same accent. She made a face at her already empty cup before she poured herself a new one. Bodhi had a urge to try and stop her from drinking so much so fast, but he stopped himself. He didn’t know her well enough to start pestering her like that. He had done it with Rogue One when they had been released from the med-center, but by then they knew each other relatively well. 

“Yes, I would like that,” He answered and couldn’t help but grin at them. Maybe he could surprise Cassian with it and it would certainly help whenever he was around people that didn’t speak Basic, or he could pick up information he wouldn’t understand without understanding Festian. He would have to nag Cassian a little more that they needed to practice each others languages, he had promised him that he would learn Jedhan for him after all. 

“Okay, so the first word you need to know is mierda,” Darien said. She looked completely serious as she brought her cup up to take another sip, she had thankfully slowed down after filling her second cup. But he noticed Janos’ lips were twitching as if he was trying to fight a smile. 

“That’s a swear-word, isn’t it?”

He had heard it several times from Cassian, and from the context of when he used it, it was a safe bet. One time was when he had whacked his toe against their bed-frame. Janos was shaking trying to contain his laughter and Darien was grinning. Bodhi had a feeling that these two would become good friends of his, just like Luke and Wedge was. 

They had probably been sitting there for about an hour, Darien trying in vain to teach him just swear-words, some of the combinations he thought were very creative (after they had been translated for him), when his comm beeped. He had to lean back to get it out of his pocket. 

“Yes? This is Rook,” he answered as he stood up from his chair and picked up his cup. They had said they would contact him regarding the juggernauts, so he hoped it wasn’t something else. 

“This is the War Room. The juggernauts will be arriving in the hangar soon.”

“Thank you. I’ll be there.” Janos and Darien stood and picked up their respective cups as well. Bodhi couldn’t help but give them questioning looks. 

“We’re gonna walk you there, you’ll get lost without us,” Janos said, which Bodhi found dubious, because he was quite sure he could manage to find the hangar on his own. “Besides I wanna meet this Fulcrum.” That sounded like a less dubious reason.

“Yeah, I wanna see what all the fuss is about.” 

Bodhi murmured something about that there was no fuss, but either they didn’t hear him or elected to ignore him as they steered him out of the mess towards the hallways. The walk towards the hangar was much like the one to the mess, except Darien asked him to look at her ship. In the Alliance the pilots used to take a look at each others ships to make sure the owners hadn’t accidentally missed something. Perhaps it was a universal thing. Other had often asked for his opinion on things because he had knack for mechanics, so he didn’t mind if she wanted his help with her ship. 

They arrived just as the hangar-door started to open. Bodhi bit his lips and got up on his toes, even if he knew it would not help to spot Cassian. He was a little anxious, even if he had seen all four of the juggernauts leave the facility, he just wanted to see Cassian and make sure he was fine. 

He could see the first of the tanks through the opening hangar door and they were much bigger from the ground than when he had seen them from the air. Bodhi could just make out two people in cockpit, the white from the stormtrooper uniform showing through the window, but their helmets were off and he knew he had seen them before. He grinned as Janos shook Bodhi’s shoulders in excitement. 

One by one the juggernauts rolled into the hangar, people backing away a little when they when past even if there was a lot of room between them and the tanks, and lined up in the far end of the hangar where they had cleared some room for them. 

But Bodhi’s smile fell from his face when he caught sight of the cockpit of the last juggernaut. He could only see Kaytoo there. He tried to calm his rapidly increasing worry and grabbed ahold of one of the straps on the flight-suit that was hanging down around his legs. There was probably a perfectly fine explanation for why he hadn’t seen Cassian in the cockpit, and he was probably freaking out about nothing. 

He ran over to the juggernaut as soon as it had stopped and the ramp started to lower. But as just as he made it up the ramp and into the cargo-hold he saw that Kay coming towards him, he realized that Kay was alone in the tank. Cassian wasn’t there.

“Where is Cassian?”

He wouldn’t meet Bodhi’s eyes and he could feel panic starting to set in. 

“We were running out of time and he told be to start driving, and I seconded that decision because the probability of us getting out of there if I didn’t start driving were mini-” Kay stopped when he caught the look on Bodhi’s face. “He was on the tank when we left the facility.”

“You didn’t answer my question, Kay.” 

For the first time since he had met him on Jedha, Bodhi could feel himself getting properly angry with Kay. He had never avoided his questions like this before, usually he would say it like it was, no matter what. He clenched his fist around the strap of the flight-suit that he had been fiddling with earlier, and failed to notice that people had gathered around them. 

“He was shot down from the tank not far from the facility, but the weather made it difficult for my sensors to pick up when he was shot and where he fell.” 

The hangar went quiet, but Bodhi didn’t know if it was just his head that blocked out all the noise or if everyone just became silent when they heard what happened. Bodhi didn’t know what to do with himself. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. They hadn’t been here long at all, barely even settled into their room and Cassian didn’t even know the lay-out of the base. 

Cassian had smiled so sweetly when he had agreed to go to Fest with him, as if he had been surprised that Bodhi had agreed at all. He had wanted to take him to the markets and watch him re-experience proper Festian food that was not the few recipes he remembered from his childhood. He had wanted to learn a recipe for Cassian so he could surprise him in the same way he surprised Bodhi with learning how to make a Jedhan soup when they had just gotten together. He should have been able to experience his home-planet in peacetime, and not just through his memories of it. And now he wouldn’t, because Kay had just left him there. 

He startled when he felt a hand touch his shoulder and Bodhi tore his eyes away from the spot he had been staring unfocused at, followed the hand until he saw Janos sympathetic face. Bodhi didn’t want his sympathy right now. He looked back at Kay again, but Kay wouldn’t meet his eyes. 

“You left him there?” he managed to force his voice to work, but it was stuttering and choked. 

That was when Kay finally looked him in the eyes for the first time since he had arrived. It seemed like he hesitated and looked over Bodhi’s shoulder, and that was when he became aware that it wasn’t just Janos that had followed him and that a rather large crowd had gathered around the tanks. 

“My sensors didn’t pick up on his fall,” he repeated with a voice far lower than he normally used. 

Bodhi suddenly couldn’t stand being in the hangar anymore. He needed to get out of there and do something. Preferably put on the thickest clothes he had and go out and look for him. As he walked down the ramp and waved through the crowd all he could think was that he could steal a speeder, but he would walk if he had to. Cassian wasn’t dead until it was confirmed, and Kay had said that he had fallen.

He needed to be quick. If it was one thing Hoth had thought him it was how important it was to find someone as soon as possible. To steal a speeder-bike, or borrow it because he was going to return it, he would just have to go directly up to it and start it. That would probably work if he did it with enough confidence. Hopefully that way the people around him would not be able to react quick enough to stop him. 

He probably put his thumb to the scanner more forcefully than he had to, but he didn’t have time to stop and feel bad about it, so he slipped into their room and reached for his winter gear. He had never dressed as fast as he did then. Just when he was about to go, he noticed a shirt hanging slightly out of his bag. It was the one he had bought for Cassian and hadn’t been able to give him yet, because he had been to tired yesterday that he hadn’t deemed it important enough to give it to him then, and they had been in such a hurry this morning. He would just have to give it to him and dragged his ass back to base. Cassian wasn’t dead, not until he could confirm it himself, he repeated to in his head as he shoved the shirt properly into his bag. 

The walk to the hangar was thankfully lacking any encounters with sentients that may try to stop him. The only thing he saw was a mousedroid that greeted him as it rolled past Bodhi in the opposite direction. He of course greeted it back, just because he was in a hurry and worried out of his mind, didn’t mean he had to be rude to a droid that hadn’t done anything to deserve it.

But the hangar on the other hand was a whole different problem and scenario. It was still packed with people that were examining the tanks, pilots tweaking on their ships, and even General Koor was there, talking to one of the mechanics and looking at the juggernauts.

He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. This was going to be harder than he had originally thought, because when he had formulated the plan, he had pictured that far less people would still be around. He didn’t see Kay though and he could potentially be the biggest problem. He would with all likelihood try and stop him if he knew or saw what he was doing. 

He was almost by the speeder-bikes when, out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed Janos walking toward him, with measured and determined steps. Kriff. He sped up in order to reach the bikes before he caught up to Bodhi. 

He was getting too close, and Bodhi was too afraid that Janos would somehow kriff up his plans that he couldn’t take the chance of him reaching Bodhi. So he ran. 

“Hey! Bodhi, stop!” He heard Janos yell behind him, just as he reached the nearest bike and slipped on it. He took a hold of the handles and made to start it. But he never got the chance, because a big body collided with him sending them both to the ground and knocking his breath from his lungs. 

He opened his eyes to see both Janos and Kay standing over him. Where he had come from, he had no idea, but he wasn’t going to let either of them stop him from going after Cassian. Cassian would do the same for him. So he kicked Janos as hard as he could in the groin, and when he groaned and toppled a little to the side, Bodhi scrambled up on the bike again, only to be dragged away by Kay. 

“Let me go, you bantha-fucker!” He really wanted to take a swing on Kay, but he knew that it would hurt him more than it would hurt Kay. “I’m not going to leave him out there!”

“I can’t let you leave,” Kay said as Janos staggered back onto his feet. 

“Since when do not care about going after him?! You have done it before.” He contemplated how he was going to get out of Kay’s tight grip on his jacket. 

“Since the possibility of losing both of you became extremely high.” Bodhi went limp for a minute and he felt tears swelling in his eyes. 

“The weather is not at its best right now, if you go out, you’ll probably end up dead,” Janos whispered as he leaned over the bike, supporting himself on the seat. 

“I don’t care. I don’t care! I can’t leave him out there to die! Let me go, I want to find him.” 

But neither K2 or Janos was listening to his pleading. And for the first time since Kay had told him what happened, Bodhi was crying, barely managing to contain his sobs. When Janos was standing straight again, they both took a firm hold of him. He was dragged back towards their room, Bodhi resisted and twisted in their grip on him, hoping that he would be able to get loose and make a run for it.

“I’ll never forgive for this,” he said as he watched Kay bypass the scanner of the room. 

He had no idea how long it had been since he had been forcefully dragged into their room by both Kay and Janos. Janos had said something about Darien keeping a lookout if there was anything about Cassian that came up on their info-networks or radars. But Bodhi had gone numb from the pain long ago, his sobs having subsided even if tears was still streaming down his face. His outerwear was lying in the bed behind him. 

He hadn’t looked at them since they had pushed him to sit on the bed, but he knew that Kay was standing by the door and that Janos was occupying the only chair in the room. He hadn’t said anything to either of them since they had pushed him into their room, and even if they had both tired starting a conversation, Kay’s attempt more awkward and forced the Janos. Even the knowledge that he had tried to put together a search-team, something that had been shot down by the commanding officers because of the worsening weather, didn’t help.They had given up on trying to get him to talk to them after a while, likely after they had realized that he wasn’t going to answer them. 

Some time he ago he had reached into his bag to retrieve the shirt he had bought Cassian, and he was fiddling and touching it. As much as it broke his heart to admit it, they weren’t going to let him out and he wasn’t strong enough to escape with them both watching him like they did. He felt like he might as well have killed Cassian with his own two hands. 

The shirt brought him some comfort, no matter how stupid it sounded. 

He didn’t understand why it had to be Cassian, he found himself wishing that it hadn’t happened or that it even was him that had gone on the mission. Then at least Cassian would be fine.

They were supposed to settle down here, but now Bodhi just regretted that he hadn’t tried to convince Cassian to settle on Yavin 4 like many others had done, even if it was a little too hot. He couldn’t help but blame himself. They didn’t have to go and fight with the Festians, but Bodhi had wanted so badly to be able to give Cassian his home-planet and he had even wanted to move to Fest himself. He didn’t anymore. If Cassian wanted him to be happy living there he couldn’t go and get himself killed, because then Bodhi would never be happy on Fest, or anywhere really. 

He was dragged out of this thoughts by a heavy knock on the door, but he made no reaction to it. But he heard the door opening, so Kay must have opened it. 

“Bodhi?” It was Darien. He turned his head slightly towards her to show he was listening and looked in her general direction. It was more than he had done in hours, in forms of giving a response, but he didn’t answer her. 

She must have taken it as her sign to continue. 

“They found Cassian.” He stared at her and his mouth fell slightly open. “One of the rebels on guard-duty saw someone coming towards the base, but he collapsed out in the snow. When he went closer to look at him, the rebel recognised him and managed to drag him into the hangar.” 

Bodhi shot to his feet so fast he almost stumbled and whispered, “What?”

She grabbed his arm and steared him toward the door and this time he didn’t mind being manhandled. “They took him to the med-bay. Come on, I’ll show you the way.” 

Bodhi didn’t remember the way to they med-bay, it was all a blur. If someone asked him for directions to the med-bay later, he would not be able to tell them. He couldn’t wrap his head around that Cassian had made it back to the base. That he wasn’t buried under the snow not far from the Weapon Facility or captured by surviving Imperials. 

 

Bodhi’s first sight of Cassian again was him surrounded by medics tucking thermo-blankets around him, but just the relief of seeing him breathing, even if he was unconscious, had him slumping slightly against the doorframe. Cassian’s clothes were laying in a heap in one of the corner, wet from the melted snow. 

He made his way over to the bed, ignoring the protesting medics. He looked so pale and his lips were blue, but there were slight tremors going through his body, so they must have managed to warm him somewhat already, from the time it took him to arrive and for them to inform him. One of the medics was speaking, but Bodhi couldn’t understand what they were saying. They pushed Bodhi gently away a few steps, and he was about to protest very loudly, but stopped himself when he saw that they just needed room to pull a cap over Cassian’s head. 

Cassian had never been fond of caps, was all Bodhi could think about when the medic moved away. They tucked the termo-blankets tighter around him, before they left. It was just him, Cassian, one medic that had probably been tasked with watching over Cassian, and Darien, who made her way into the room. 

“You need anything?” she asked quietly. 

“No, but thank you for letting me know and taking me here.” He smiled at her before he sobered up before he continued, “I’m going to apologize to Janos and Kay the next time I see them. I said some things I didn’t mean.” 

She made a dismissive gesture. “Don’t worry about them too much, they understand why you did and said what you did and they’ll forgive you. And Cassian will be fine.” He smiled at her, grateful for her assurance, and she squeezed his shoulder before she left the room. 

He needed something to do, he felt like all he had been doing that day was waiting, so he kept fiddling with Cassians blankets and tucking them around him, making sure his cap was down around his ears.

Cassian’s tremors visibly increased over time as Bodhi looked at him. He had been assured by the medics that that was a good thing, but it was still painful to see him shake like that. Bodhi didn’t dare take one of his hands from under the covers, afraid that if he did, he would just make Cassian colder. Even if he really wanted to hold his hand. He settled instead for stroking his hand over his head. 

Some of the colour was returning. But still there was a medic present in the room constantly, looking over Cassian to make sure there were no complications concerning the reheating, they told him, and there was doctors stopping by regularly to check the progress and how he was going. Everyone seemed happy, and Bodhi let himself relax slightly, assured by the medics precautions and the doctor’s words.

Cassian moved under the covers, his hand going up to his chest and he wrapped it around the ring. He couldn’t see it, but it was such a familiar gesture that Bodhi recognised it right away. He opened his eyes, letting them sweep over the room, before they settled on Bodhi. Cassian’s teeth were chattering and he was shaking, but he still smiled at him.

“H-how did I get back here? If you came l-looking for me in t-that weather, I’m gonna be s-so pissed at you.” His teeth chattered so hard that he struggled to get the words out properly. It wasn’t that he didn’t want Bodhi to look for him, they both knew that, it was the thought of something happening to Bodhi while he was looking for him, that bothered him. Something that was confirmed when Cassian said, “C-cause something could have happened to you.”

“You managed to walk here by yourself and one of the guards saw you and took you inside. I tried to go look for you, when I found out you weren’t with Kay,” Cassian frowned at him, “but Kay and Janos stopped me before I could borrow a speeder-bike.” 

Cassian tried to sit up, ready to tell him why that had been a horrible idea had been, but he was too weak to do it and Bodhi pushed him down when noticed what he was attempting.

“Don’t try and tell me you wouldn’t attempt the same thing, because we both know it’s a lie.”

Cassian let out a defeated sigh, or Bodhi assumed it was defeated but it was hard to tell considering the chattering teeth. 

He nodded. “T-that’s true.”

Cassian fell silent, seeming to be deep in thought. Bodhi was silent too, giving him time to think, but he continued to look at Cassian, just taking him in. He still had a tight grip on the necklace. 

“B-bodhi?” He hummed in response. Cassian reached up with shaking hands and unclasped the necklace, took Bodhi’s hand in one of his, and gently placed it in his palm. 

“Why are you giving me this?” Cassian took his eyes off Bodhi’s hand and looked up at him. He looked nervous.

“Marry me?”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have had very little time to work on it, which is why it has not been updated in a while
> 
> Thank you so much Bright_Elen for being my beta!

It had taken a lot from Cassian just to drag himself to the mess hall to look over messages he had received from his contacts. More than he would like to admit. The recovery from his walk in the storm had taken longer than he would have liked. Even if it had barely been a week, the urge to do something had started to creep up on him. 

Bodhi had looked up at the ceiling like he was sending prayers to someone when Cassian had managed to talk himself out of the med bay earlier than he probably should have. But he hadn’t said much about it, just looked exasperated at him and helped him into the new shirt that Bodhi had given him. The fact that he had weaseled himself out of the med bay on several occasions before probably had something to do with Bodhi’s reaction. And why it had taken more energy than normal to get to the mess. It was, after all, a tough recovery after almost dying from the cold; or so he had been informed when he walked out. And he shouldn’t expect to be back to normal right away. 

He was sure that he had been sitting there a while, but he hadn’t paid attention to it, too consumed by his work. The feeling of people coming and leaving was there in the back of his mind, but he had ultimately no idea how long he had been sitting there.

He noted down an interesting piece of information: the reaction that the Imperials had to the attack on the base had affected the civilian population and an increasing number of them turned away from the Empire. This was good. The Empire had never been popular, but this would affect them negatively. 

Cassian was pulled out of his thoughts about the possibilities the sinking popularity of the Empire by someone placing a cup of caf in front of him, blocking his view of his pad. The heavily underlined report blurred. 

Bodhi looked concerned when Cassian glanced up at him. It was an expression Cassian had seen a few times this past week. But it was the glinting of the metal peeking out from his shirt that pulled his attention away from Bodhi’s face. Cassian’s mother’s ring. While it didn’t fit Bodhi, he wore it around his neck like Cassian had done. And it still meant the same as if he had worn it on his finger. 

Kay had seemed pleased when he’d seen it on a visit to Cassian in the med-wing. And so was Cassian, every time he looked at Bodhi or the ring. Which he noticed quite often. If the rest of the Rogue One team had teased him about his feelings for Bodhi before, they should see him now. 

“Have you eaten anything?”

“W-what? No, I was busy with the intelligence from my informants. Some useful stuff in here.” He tore his eyes away from the ring as Bodhi sat down. Cassian would never admit that Bodhi had startled him slightly when he spoke up. 

Apparently his answer wasn’t the one Bodhi had hoped for, judging by the deepening frown on Bodhi’s face. 

“I’ll go and get some now,” Cassian hurriedly added, and was relieved when Bodhi’s frown lessened. 

He tucked the pad under his arm and made his way to the foodstation. The mess wasn’t packed so it’s couldn’t be mealtime, but some of the pilots seemed to have migrated there, and Cassian could spot the two that Bodhi had made fast friends with standing in line. 

As he made his way towards the end of the line, he realised that he actually was kind of hungry, but he knew that if Bodhi, or Kay, hadn’t pulled him from his work, it was a slim chance that he would have eaten anything before he went to bed. He had a tendency to get lost in what he was focusing on, whether it was reports, fixing weapons or any other task that needed his attention.

The line moved fast because of the quiet mess hall. He was filling a plate with wood without really looking at what he was taking. He had never been picky when it came to food, at first because there were little to none and later, when he came to the Rebellion, he was just happy with getting food that he ate it even if he didn’t particularly like it. He could still vaguely recall the aching hunger he had felt after he lost his parents and before he managed to get to the Alliance. He knew that Bodhi had also had little food from time to time growing up, but he still had preferences about what he ate, even if he ate what was served. His lack of preference or pickiness concerning food had played into his hands several times throughout his career. Local food was not a problem for him, even if it was not always the best dish he had tasted. He had at least never offended anyone by not eating their food. 

When Cassian made his way back to the table he had occupied, Janos and Darien had already joined Bodhi and seemed to be in deep conversation about the best way to jack up a hyperdrive, if he heard them correctly. Darien was leaning over the table and gesticulating while she excitedly explained the upgrade she was considering doing to her her turbo, so that her x-wing would go faster out of hyperspace as well. Cassian sat down beside Bodhi and dragged his caf closer to himself, and that is when he noticed that Bodhi hadn’t gotten himself something to eat. He gestured to his food and pushed his tray closer to Bodhi, offering to share with him, but Bodhi just leaned towards him and kissed him on his cheek, whispering that he had eaten something during lunch. 

“Got any new info? I saw you working,” Janos asked Cassian as he turned away from the from the discussion that had formed about whether it was best to tune the already existing hyperdrive or if it was better to hook another one up to it. All illegal of course. Not that it was something that would top all the other intergalactic laws they had broken. 

“Both Tonc and Jyn said they had heard rumours that the Empire’s reaction to the base blowing up had negative repercussions in the population. More people were turning away from the Empire or those who were already against them were becoming more vocal about it.” He dragged his fork through his food before taking a bite. “But these are rumours. We will probably need something more concrete or maybe even get another reaction like that again. to be more certain.” 

The Empires hadn’t exactly been subtle in their reaction to the destruction of the base. In their mission to find out who was responsible for it, they had taken it out on the civilian population. Cassian could fully understand if the general opinion of the Empire was falling. Sentients generally tended to dislike being beaten up over something they had nothing to do with or no knowledge of. 

He needed to look over the messages he had received about this, to see if he could gather more information from them. If not, maybe he could send someone to the nearest city to gather information that way. He knew that there was no way that Bodhi, or Kay for that matter, would let him do it himself. At least not while he wasn’t cleared for missions by the medics. If he tried, he would be physically dragged back. And Bodhi would probably have no trouble getting help from either Janos, Darien or Kay. 

“At least that is something to go on, and that’s better than going in blind.” Darien shrugged a shoulder. 

Unless the information turned out to be incorrect. Then that may be worse than going in blind. Cassian nodded at her anyway, but Bodhi saw his slightly doubtful face, and gave Cassian a Look. 

Cassian changed the subject.

“How are the Festian lessons coming along? What have you been teaching him?” 

“One of the most important things,” Janos said seriously.

“How to ask for a caf,” Darien didn’t manage to be as serious as Janos, so it didn’t take long before her face broke out in a grin. 

Cassian smiled as he looked at Bodhi’s grinning face, and took another bite of his food.

\------------

The war-room was dimly lit. It was just the map of the galaxy that provided light in the room at that moment, and shadows danced over the walls as a result. It was almost deserted when Cassian entered, just a few technicians and strategists bent over datapads at their stations. Which was what he had hoped for, because it would make it easier to be undisturbed. 

He looked around the room and spotted General Koor in one of the corners, leaned over a holomap of Fest, the known bases of the imperials marked by red dots.

He hoped to convince Koor to send an intelligence agent or two to confirm or, at the very least, find some more information that might be useful concerning the Imperials’ reaction to the attack. Because at the moment he had very little to go on and they needed more concrete intelligence if they wanted to use it. He had been unable to get more information out of the reports and messages he had received, so this was the only way he could think of to verify it. And as much as he prefered to go himself, that was probably not an option, considering he still had violent shivers from time to time. Even if they were getting less frequent by the day.

Cassian would prefer it to be someone that had worked on the weapons facility mission with him, because then he had somewhat of a sense of what level of skills they had. And this was a potentially crucial mission. He didn’t want to just sent anybody.

He intentionally made his footsteps louder to make sure that the General heard him. Cassian had a tendency to sneak up on people as he was unused to making much noise. As he had grown up he had learned that noise meant you got caught. And most likely killed. 

The General looked away from the holo-map and at Cassian.

“Major, what can I do for you?” 

Cassian placed his holo-pad in front of the General and gestured to it. 

“I have gotten some intel from two of my contacts about the growing dissatisfaction among the civilian population toward the Empire after their reaction to the destruction of the weapons facility.” 

The General glanced at him.

“But I need more information to strengthen this, to be able to use it.” Cassian paused. “We need to send someone to discreetly gather intel about this in the surrounding cities. If this turns out to be true, it is something that is greatly to our advantage.”

The General nodded slightly and looked to be considering the proposal. 

“We will look it over. Increased hatred for the Empire would potentially play into our hands. But we will need to look at the report from your contacts to see if it is something we should pursue. Send it to me.”

The General picked up some of the pads that lay scattered around the Festian holo-map, tossed his empty caf in the bin, and headed out of the war room. Just as he was about to open the door, he stopped and turned to Cassian. 

“Try and see if you can drag up any additional intel from reports.”

Cassian was pretty sure the had dragged up every ounce of info there was, but he didn’t say it, and the General had already left the room.

\--------

It took several days, nearly a week, before Cassian heard from General Koor and the other officers. During those days everyone had been grounded, waiting out one of Fest’s bigger snowstorms. The howling of the wind was heard all the way into the generator room and the barracks, both which were at the heart of the mountain. If you walked by the hangar, it was possible to feel the force of the storm raging outside, even if they had put down the storm-doors in addition to the normal camouflaged durasteel hangar-doors.

All sentients bundled up a little extra, or had a warm cup of something to deal with the drop in temperature that came even with the generator and the heating working at full capacity. But at least it was warmer inside than outside, and that was something. Darien and Kay had given him the exact same flat look when he had said so, which shouldn’t have been possible. But is somehow was.

Thankfully all the radars and equipment that were outside had so far survived the storm, and were still working. Cassian didn’t know if that was a miracle, or if the equipment was just made to withstand the weather. He suspected it may be a bit of both, judging from the rage of the storm.

Planetside was deserted as far as Cassian was aware; no sane sentient would venture outside in a storm like this, because no one would not last long even with good clothes. The cold would creep into your bones and settle there. Cassian had become very familiar with the feeling. 

Cassian and Bodhi were wrapped in blankets in their room, with Kay powered down for the night in the corner, watching a holo-film that Cassian had never heard of. Not that he had heard of a lot of holos. It hadn’t exactly been something he had done often before he had met Bodhi. Now they would watch a new holo-film, at least they were new to Cassian, once a week if not more. 

If he was being honest with himself, he hadn’t been paying attention to it for a while. His attention kept getting pulled to Bodhi, and the expressions he made whenever something happened. 

And the ring hanging over his shirt. It wasn’t so long ago that he barely even dared considering this happening, or the future generally. And now he was not just willing to consider it, but wanted to discuss it with Bodhi. 

His comm beeped and he shifted in his seat so he would be able to pull it out. It was from the general. War room, 08:00. 

“Do you think they are going to go through with the intelligence mission, the one that you suggested?” Bodhi whispered as he read over his shoulder. 

Cassian leaned his cheek against the top of Bodhi’s head. “I don’t know, but I really hope so. And I want to go if it becomes something off it. I need to get away from this kriffing base, I have been stuck here too long.” 

Bodhi scoffed as he pulled the planket he had wrapped around them earlier, higher up. The room was warmer than the hallways, but the blankets still gave that little extra warmth. “It has not been that long, just longer than you are used to being base-bound.”

“I’m just getting a bit stir-crazy.”

“I know, but you at least have to wait out the storm.” 

“I have had enough of wandering outside freezing for a while.”

“Yeah, so have I.”

Cassian tugged gently at the bun on top of Bodhi’s head for that comment, but he didn’t say anything about it. 

He tried to turn his attention to the holo playing and Bodhi’s occasional commentary, but his thoughts kept wandering back to the impending meeting in the morning. He had given the General every piece of information he had gotten from Jyn and Tonc. And while he hoped it had been enough to be given permission to go verify that information, he couldn’t be sure. It wasn’t perhaps the most important thing they could do at the moment, but knowing that the intel was legitimate might play well into their hands. 

This was more like the types of missions he had been doing in the Rebellion from the start, therefore he had hope that he would be able to go on this still hypothetical mission. The medics had cleared him for field work just a few days ago, when he no longer experienced any shivers or shakes. 

The mission would also make it possible for Cassian to take Bodhi into the spaceport. There would be much more to see there, especially of Fest as a planet and culture, than just being confined to a base. It was difficult to see, and hopefully fall in love with, a planet from a base alone. 

Cassian glanced down at Bodhi, his sleepy gaze fixed on the holo that was nearing its end by the looks of it. His head thumped softly against the wall. Even if they didn’t approve, it was still a long way to have come from that cell on Jedha. Alive and getting closer to having a new home. 

He pulled Bodhi closer to himself, laid his head on top of Bodhi’s and closed his eyes. No matter how it when tomorrow, he was quite content spending his life like this with Bodhi. 

\------

It had been a terrible morning as far as Cassian was concerned. He had startled awake a little later than usual, which meant that all the good caf in the mess hall had already been taken. He less time to eat, and had to rush to be in the war room to be on time. The clanking steps of Kay had appeared behind him when he had passed the hangar, and while it was usually a comforting sound, Cassian was in too much of a hurry to let it calm him. 

He slipped into the room, with Kay following, just as the meeting was about to start. Bodhi glided up beside him. The hand that Cassian brushed across his arms wasn’t as subtle as he had thought, if the look Kay sent him was anything to go by.

By the sound of it, the intel he had given the general was not to be addressed first, so Cassian only listened with one ear. The planetary map was, like always, activated in the middle of the room, the red dots showing the Imperial bases and facilities. The officers speaking gestured to the holo and traced paths.

Both Cassian and Bodhi straightened slightly when General Koor finally took the floor. He cleared his throat carefully. 

“We have gotten intel that there is a spreading anti-Imperial sentiment among the planetary population after the Empire’s reaction to the destruction of the weapons facility. We have decided that it is crucial that we verify it, and if verified, find out how far this dislike has spread.” The General paused as he looked around the room. “Two teams consisting of two sentients each will complete this mission. The only goal is to gather information. The teams are already picked and will be debriefed after this meeting.”

Cassian couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face when he stood there with the file in hand after the debriefing, Bodhi standing and chatting with another operative across the room with a similar file in his hand. He was actually going to leave the base, and with Bodhi. He had no idea how it happened. Maybe he had heard from the medics that he had been cleared. But he wasn’t going to look a gift musk in the mouth.


End file.
